DRI: Hazardous Chemicals Found in Flavored E-Cigarette Vapor

Desert Research Institute says that hazardous chemicals have been found in the vapor of flavored e-cigarettes.

Friday, November 11th 2016, 12:07 AM PST

Updated:

Friday, November 11th 2016, 6:38 PM PST

A group of local scientists are clearing the air about the dangers of e-cigarettes for your health. New research shows there are hazardous chemicals inside the flavored liquids being puffed.

Vera Samburova and Andrey Khlystov started the study in April at the Desert Research Institute, to take a look at aerosols being used by people vaping.

"I think people need to know what's in the vapors," said Associate Research Professor Khlystov.

Their research found harmful levels of chemicals being made after the container heated liquid inside.

"Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen and so if you're smoking it, you can run the risk to develop a cancer sometime later in life," said Khlystov.

Their study showed that there are far more dangers than what people may realize. Inside their lab, the chemists simulated the vapor created from three different e-cigarette devices. Both flavored and unflavored liquids were tested. After several trials, they found that the concentration of flavors do impact results. One puff of any of the flavored e-liquids showed that smokers are exposed to harmful toxins.

Khlystov added, "What we found is that flavored compounds produce very high concentrations of toxic aldehydes."

Nearly 8,000 flavored e-cigarette liquids have been marketed, according to the World Health Organization in a report from 2014. What Khlystov says is troubling, is that many flavors are appealing to adolescents.

"It's especially dangerous for the younger people, while they are still developing," said Khlystov.

In all of their experiments, the amount of aldehydes produced by the flavored e-cigarette liquids exceeded the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) for hazardous chemical exposure.

The research was independently funded by DRI. And the scientists are stressing for more work to be done on e-cigarette vapor. DRI is also looking for partners in the medical field to help with further studies.